[alexman]

I'm surprised if PG did say that. If disagreement should lead to downvote, then unpopular opinions would not see the light of day.

Also, if one's sick of discussing a topic, s/he can simply don't read about or discuss it. Why prevent others from discussing it?

[dang]

Things pg said about downvotes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=392347

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=658691

It's how HN has always worked, and in my opinion needs to. A site that cares about discussion quality needs those white blood cells.

[alexman]

Thanks for sharing the threads. I always think that downvoting is for discouraging bad arguments from DH0 to DH3 [1] (for discussion quality as you mentioned). Now I realize that even convincing arguments at DH6 can be downvoted as long as one disagrees with it.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html